


Light Pollution

by chii_kakumei



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Fluff, Just pure fluff really, M/M, Post-Tower of Hanoi Arc, Stargazing, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 16:29:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13907895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chii_kakumei/pseuds/chii_kakumei
Summary: Kusanagi knows more places than just Stardust Road to step back from the bustle of the city and its never ending rush. He'll take Yusaku to all of them, eventually. But for now, a breath of fresh air under the stars after a lifetime of worries.





	Light Pollution

Kusanagi knows more places than just Stardust Road to step back from the bustle of the city and its never ending rush.The public viewing plaza is always crowded, practically no matter the hour, but there’s a garden down an alley nestled between two of the buildings where he likes to take breaks sometimes, where the hum of the crowd is muffled and the world seems a little slower.

Den City’s beaches are impossibly crowded come summer, but there’s a spot twenty minutes down the highway that’s practically an unknown oasis. Admittedly he’d only found that one because of a flat tire and had yet to actually  _ go _ to the beach proper, but he’s saved it in his mind, always a vague plan for the future. This summer, maybe. He can bring out the barbeque, even.

He knows this place too, of course.

There’s no light pollution here. Well, there is, but much less so than the bright neon lights of Den City. It’s a beautiful city, but it’s brighter than the stars. Even Kusanagi sometimes wants a breath of fresh air.

Here, close to the base of the mountains and far off the highway, the stars and the moon outshine everything else. There’s a hint if the galaxy in the line of the stars, but just a hint. They’d have to go a lot further out into the countryside if they wanted to see shooting stars.

Back down on Earth, Yusaku nestles a little further into his side, mug of hot chocolate still steaming in his hands. The spring days are warm but the nights are still chilly enough for matching mugs and a shared blanket draped over their shoulders.

Yusaku is wearing an old sweater of his. It’s a little baggy, and the edges of the sleeves are frayed and pilled, but it should be warm enough. Kusanagi half-chuckles, masking it with a sip of coffee, and loops an arm over Yusaku’s shoulders to keep him from pulling back. Yusaku makes a soft little noise of contentment, his only acknowledgment that he knows exactly what Kusanagi is doing and doesn’t mind one bit.

They sit together on the very top of the food truck, legs trailing off the side, and watch the stars twinkle against the black silhouettes of the hill so steep it might as well be a mountain.

Neither of them actually know a thing about the stars. Kusanagi vaguely remembers learning something about the terrifying expanse of space in school, but not the details of the science. He doesn’t know a thing a about the constellations either. For a while they trace falsehoods in the stars, drawing lines between the stars like spotting shapes in the clouds. For every fake constellation Yusaku traces out, Kusanagi comes up with a small little story, each more outrageous than the last.  _ This one’s a bear, the vengeful spirit of the northern hunters. That one’s a musty old alchemist who turned lead into gold but wouldn’t tell a soul how. _

He finishes off his mug of coffee and twists to set it somewhere behind them as Yusaku protests a story about an old king reborn as a spirit haunting another world. Fine, so it wasn’t his best. But really, can you blame him? He’s just relieved they can do something like this, after the last few days they’ve had. What with how many times his heart had all but stopped beating in his chest every time Yusaku had gotten hurt, every time he’d been  _ this close _ to death...

But now it’s calm and it’s gentle. Both are things they’ve been sorely lacking for a while now. Kusanagi’s heart stutters uncomfortable in his chest just with the memory of the tower, at what Yusaku had to endure as he fought to stop it. Yusaku presses back into his side as if he knows… but really probably just misses the warmth from the fallen blanket. Ah, whatever. He’ll take it.

He reaches for the blanket Yusaku is too proud to admit to wanting back around him, then stops. Kusanagi tries not to be too forward, when it comes to all things relating to Yusaku. It’s not that Yusaku is fragile, or even flighty, really. It’s just easier on the both of them for Yusaku to set the pace. Still, tonight he feels bold.

“I love you.” 

Yusaku glances up at him, and if he’s surprised, he hides it cleanly beneath a mask of  _ amused but unimpressed _ . “Aren’t you supposed to say ‘the moon is beautiful’?”

Kusanagi just grins down at him. “Hey, when have I ever been a poet?”

Yusaku just huffs and accepts the truth as Kusanagi reaches it a hand to ruffle through Yusaku’s hair in the way he likes but will never actually admit to. But his lack of protest is enough. Yusaku has always been sweet with him. That’s probably why Kusanagi is such a pushover. He’ll move the planets in the sky, if Yusaku asks to see the brilliance of Venus or Jupiter.

He slides his hand down gently to cup Yusaku’s cheek after a lingering second. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Yusaku replies, and Kusanagi leans down to kiss him. It’s kind, and it’s slow- the kind of kiss you have when two people’s worlds narrow down to just the softness of each other.

Tastes like chocolate and coffee, bitter and sweet. 

One of Yusaku’s hands comes up to curl into the fabric of Kusanagi’s jacket near the collar, closing the last of the distance still left between them. For a long while, they fall into each other like that. 

Kusanagi pulls away first, just to take a breath. Yusaku tries to chase him and is stopped only by the mug still in his other hand. Gently Kusanagi takes it from him and leans back to place it on the far end of the roof, next to his own. Yusaku’s words chase him.

“I love you.”

Kusanagi glances back, and regrets ever looking away-because Yusaku is smiling at him. It’s so gentle, and Kusanagi’s heart all but skips a beat, like he’s seven again with his first crush on a classmate whose name he’s long since forgotten. The feeling isn’t so fleeting, this time though.

“Yusaku…”

There aren’t very many others Yusaku will show his smile to. Eventually he’ll show it to others. But for right now, for this particular smile that’s soft in the moonlight, Kusanagi wants to monopolize it. 

Yusaku just hums. That smile even reaches his eyes, catching the moonlight with an ethereal glow. 

“Stay with me,” he says, though it comes out almost like a question.

He gets the sense that Yusaku is almost about to laugh at him. “I wouldn’t leave.”

He hopes not. He won’t stop Yusaku, if he decides eventually that it’s time for their paths to part… But he hopes with everything he has that day never comes. There’s a thousand more places he wants to show Yusaku first.

Yusaku tilts his head up to kiss Kusanagi again, and they fit together just as well as every time before. It ends with the promise of another, then another, until they’ve forgotten about the stars entirely.

“There’s somewhere else I want to take you when we get the chance,” Kusanagi says after a while. A dozen more spring to mind. He wonders how long it’ll take to manage all of them.

“I’ll look forward to it.” Then, added on too deliberate to be an afterthought, “Especially if it’s just the two of us.”

Kusanagi grins. Yusaku returns it, though smaller than before. Embarrassed, probably. He slings his arm back around Yusaku’s shoulders and says, “I’ll see what I can do.” Pause. “Oh, and Yusaku?”

Yusaku, who very much did not miss the timing of that pause or the upward quirk of Kusanagi’s voice, says, “Yes?”

Kusanagi pauses yet again, and feels Yusaku tense slightly beside him. He waits just a second longer, then- “The moon  _ is _ beautiful. But not as much as you.”

Yusaku groans and ducks his head, but not fast enough to hide the flush on his cheeks. “Don’t say that.”

Kusanagi laughs and pats him on the back. Yeah, he thinks. If their days could be this peaceful for the rest of their lives, that would be nice. They probably won’t be, but that’s okay too. Because through thick and thin, and even if he has to go through the stars beyond the edge of the world, he’ll support Yusaku through it all.


End file.
